The Dallas forward, who joined his hometown team in a deadline trade after five years with the moribund Hornets, has been an unlikely playoff hero. Could a first NBA finals appearance be next?
“I was in a restaurant with my wife when I found out,” PJ Washington tells me. “We were just happy and screaming.” This is surely not the typical NBA player’s recounting of the moment he finds out he’s been traded. But the Dallas Mavericks forward isn’t on the typical NBA player’s trajectory. Five years after he was drafted in the first round by the longtime cellar-dwelling Charlotte Hornets, Washington got a call at the trade deadline in February that was life-changing: he was headed home to Texas.
We sat down with Washington ahead of the Mavericks’ opening game against the red-hot Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night in the Western Conference finals, a best-of-seven-games battle for a place in the NBA’s championship round. The 25-year-old Washington is actually a Dallas native, who says he grew up going to Mavericks games as a kid “all the time” and watching present-day coach Jason Kidd run the point alongside Dirk Nowitzki. Looking back on those formative years on Tuesday morning, shortly before boarding a plane to Minneapolis, Washington acknowledges that circuitously finding his way back to DFW – especially on a team with championship potential – is immensely fortunate. “It’s a full-circle moment,” he tells the Guardian. “Being able to come back home, play for the home team. Not a lot of guys get that opportunity.”